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Citing: Google Docs

Google Doc Citation Tool

There are several things that you can do with the citation tool in Google Docs. You can add citations, add in-text citations, edit the citation, delete a citation and add a bibliography to your paper.

To start you will want to open the citation tool 

  1. In Docs, open the document you wish to add citations to
  2. On the top click tools > citations
  3. Select formatting style (MLA, APA or Chicago Author-Date).

You can now start adding sources

  1. Click Add citation source
  2. Under the source type drop-down select the type of source you used (Book, Website, Journal Article, etc.)
  3. Under the accessed by drop-down select how you access the source (Print, Website, Online Database, etc.)

    You will now be able to add the source information starting with the authors
     

  4. Does the source you are adding have an author or editor? 

    • If so, under the first dropdown choose author or editor and insert their information

    • If there is more than one author or editor click the + Contributor button and type in the additional information

      • You must add the authors/contributors in the order you would like them to show up.

  5. Fill out the remaining fields

    • Fields with an * are necessary for a complete citation 

  6. Click add citation source 

  7. Repeat steps 4-6 to add additional sources 

To add in-text citations

  1. In the document, place your cursor where you want the citation to appear
  2. In the citations sidebar, hover over the citation you wish to use and click cite (The citation should automatically be placed where your cursor was located)
  3. Replace # with the page number for the information you are citing or delete if not needed

To add a bibliography

  1. In the document, place your cursor where you want the bibliography to appear
  2. In the citations sidebar, click the insert bibliography button located at the bottom (It should automatically be placed where your cursor was located)

*Note* If you need a works cited page, you must change the bibliography to works cited

To edit or delete a citation

  1. In the citations sidebar, hover over the source you wish to edit or delete
  • Edit: click the three dots in the top right corner of the source and click edit
  • Edit desired information and then click save source
  • Delete: Click the three dots in the top right corner of the source and click delete

Google Doc Comparison Tool

New in Google, you can compare two documents together. Both documents must have already been created to use this tool.

  1. Open the first document you wish to compare
  2. Click tools > Compare Documents
  3. Click the my drive folder and select the second document you wish to compare
    *Note* Cick the checkbox include comments from suggested documents if there are changes suggested in those comments (This will make them changes in the compared document)
  4. Under Attribute differences to either select your name or insert a new one The changes will show up as comments under this name
  5. Click compare -- This will create a third document with all the information and changes.
  6. Click open document button if you wish to review the changes right away
  7. On this document the text will be from the first document and the comments are the differences of the second document

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